NORTH ROAD TRIP - MANN RIVER NATURE RESERVE - 9 TO 10 NOVEMBER 2021

 9 NOVEMBER

After breakfast and a morning swim down the Nymboida River, we left Buccarumbi and continued along the Old Glen Innes Road.  

The road was very narrow and potholed in parts as it followed beside the Boyd River. Luckily, we didn’t meet any cars/trucks from the opposite direction. It was very pretty with views up the valley with the river as the centre piece of the vista.

Along the way, we stopped at Dalmorton to check out the abandoned town and camp area. The camp area was a bit soggy and there were a couple of old buildings in the old township mainly from the 1900’s. The older buildings were gone and there was little trace of them. 

The road eventually went through a human hewn rock tunnel. It was about it wasn’t very long but it was exciting to drive through.

Our final stop was Mann River Nature Reserve. There was a new camp area (the previous was destroyed by fires) about a hundred metres from the Mann River. We set up camp and wandered down to the river, found a shade spot on a river beach and spent our time enjoying the sounds of the water bubbling over the rocks and dipping ourselves in the cool water. It was a very hot day!

Later in the afternoon, I had a walk up the river but I couldn’t go too far as the vegetation was too thick. Returning back to camp, we set up a campfire, ate dinner, watched the approach of the kangaroos and enjoyed the closing of a very warm day.

10 NOVEMBER     

In the morning there were kangaroos around us but they were still shy and kept their distance. At the river, I had a swim which was very invigoratingly cold. Haha.

Later in the morning, we left camp to continue our journey.

NORTH ROAD TRIP - BUCCARUMBI - 7 TO 9 NOVEMBER 2021

We left Lawrence and stopped at Grafton for food and petrol.

Our journey took us along the Old Glen Innes Road. It started as a bitumen road but changed to dirt. It remained dirt/gravel most of the way with bitumen in small sections. We drove at a leisurely pace enjoying the farm and bush scenery.

We crossed the new bridge over the Nymboida River at Buccarumbi and set up a free camp.  We were on a hillside overlooking the river between stands of casuarinas. The river flowed under the bridge and cascaded through the remains of the old bridge and into the wilds.

The swimming was good – walking down a track to the river bank, slipping into the cool water and lazily drifting with the current towards the bridge.

The area was surrounded by farms or difficult to walk through vegetation. There were a number of tracks leading around to the Boyd River but not quite. Overall, it seemed a bit snaky.

I had two kayaks.

The first was up the Nymboida River. There were a few rapids which I portered around. The return journey was fun – down the rapids (grade2), manoeuvring around rocky areas, passing clumps of tall spindly reeds and drifting with the current.

The second kayak was up the Boyd River. The junction with the Nymboida River was piled high and wide with river pebbles. There were some small birds that blended in with the greyish rock. I did a lot of portering as the water was shallow. The scenery was wild and stark. The trees were still recovering from the bushfires of two years ago. The return was great – drifting, shallow rapids and lots of rock obstacles.

The weather was generally sunny but we did have a lot of off and on showers especially, in the late afternoon and night.

In the afternoon, we lit a campfire and sat around it eating dinner, having a couple of drinks and watching the day come to a close.

NORTH ROAD TRIP - HAWKS NEST - 1 TO 5 NOVEMBER 2021

1 NOVEMBER

We left for a road trip to northern NSW.

We stopped for petrol and 2 hours later, we were at Hawks Nest. First thing was to check the surf which was blown out by a strong NE wind. Second stop was checking into the campgrounds at Bennett’s Beach and having lunch. The third stop was Tea Gardens for coffee and Jacinta’s homemade chocolate weetbix slices … yum! We sat on the river waterfront and enjoyed the view. The wind was strong here as well. We drove to Windy Whoopa and had a walk along the beach. It was more protected here from the winds. We sat on the beach, enjoyed the sun and watched the tiny waves slippin' and a-slidin' along the shore. 

Back to camp, drinks, guitar and dinner. A great first day!

2^nd NOVEMBER

After waking, I had a bike ride to Bennett’s Beach to check the surf which was still blown out. Continuing from there, I rode the bike along a few tracks to Jimmy's Beach campground. Good short tracks.

After breakfast, we drove to Jimmy’s Beach and had a pleasant morning sitting in the sun, a few swims and watched the birdlife.

A coffee at Tea Gardens, which was pretty windy.

After lunch, we rode the bikes to Windy Whoopa. We rode on a few short tracks then the service roads out to the massive sand dune at the entrance to the Myall River. Amazing scenery but the wind was strong and getting stronger. A hard pedal back against the wind.

3 NOVEMBER

The wind still howling but what a sunrise!

First stop, a mountain bike ride on the old mining road in Myall Lakes National Park. The plan was to ride as far as the turn off to Johnson Beach and turned right and loop back. This track was very rough and overgrown. Eventually, we had to back track as the reeds grew very high and the track went underwater. Still, it was fun and of course, my shoes and socks were drenched.

We drove to the car ferry at Bombah Point but they now charging to use the facility so we gave it a miss.

We stopped at Angophora picnic area in Myall Lakes NP for a check of the lake. The water was calm as it was protected from the wind by the thick trees.

Next was coffee and onwards to Jimmy's Beach. The sun was shining at times, the water was cool and it was pretty. We relaxed and I had a couple of dunks in the bay.

4 NOVEMBER

A mountain bike ride on the Hawks Nest Seal Rocks (HNSR) in Myall Lakes NP.

We parked at the Angophora Picnic Area. Jacinta wasn’t riding today so she had a hike along the lake shoreline. I rode along Mungo Brush Road to the intersection of the HNSR Road. It wasn’t much of a road being overgrown, potted, rocky and muddy in sections. It once was a viable road. Part of the road had been used by 4WD cars but that must have been awhile ago. The weird thing about this ride was the feeling that I was riding uphill in either direction. There were some fast sections but generally there were too many obstacles. The obstacles were fun to navigate over, under or through. In general, it looked very snaky as there were swamps either side of the ‘road’. A fun though tiring ride.

Back at the van, I had a refreshing dip in the lake and then we drove to Tea Gardens for lunch.

We spent the late afternoon back at the camp. The wind had swung around to the south-east and there were a few light sprinkles of rain.

5 NOVEMBER

We left Hawks Nest to go north.